An UPDATE refers to moving from an older software version to a newer software version. For example, an update from VIPRE 7.5 > VIPRE 9.5.

An UPGRADE refers to moving from one edition of VIPRE to a more enhanced edition. For example, an upgrade from VIPRE Antivirus Business > VIPRE Endpoint Security.

IMPORTANT: When upgrading agents, you must create an EXE installer package instead of an MSI installer package. Using the MSI installer package to upgrade an agent will cause the upgrade to fail. See Possible Issues During Update/Upgrade below (this also applies to updating an agent during the upgrade).

CONTENTS

NEW FEATURES IN VERSION 9.5

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

UPGRADE NOTES

KNOWN ISSUES AND WORKAROUNDS

ADDITIONAL KNOWLEDGE BASE ARTICLES

1. NEW FEATURES IN VERSION 9.5

VIPRE Endpoint Security

SIMPLIFIED UPGRADE OF AGENTS - You can now quickly and easily upgrade your agents from one edition (for example, Antivirus Business) to a more advanced edition (for example, Endpoint Protection) using the 'Scheduled' or 'Install Existing Agent' features within the console.

INCLUSION OF PATCH MANAGEMENT UPDATES - Patch Management updates are now included in updates delivered from the cloud.

VIPRE Business Premium

SIMPLIFIED UPGRADE OF AGENTS - You can now quickly and easily upgrade your agents from one edition (for example, Antivirus Business) to a more advanced edition (for example, Endpoint Protection) using the 'Scheduled' or 'Install Existing Agent' features within the console.

INCLUSION OF PATCH MANAGEMENT UPDATES - Patch Management updates are now included in updates delivered from the cloud.

Common Features

COMPREHENSIVE MANAGEMENT OF ALL AGENTS - Roaming agents can now be updated directly from the console (version 7.0 and later), eliminating the need to take manual steps or visit the office to get the latest protection.

CONSERVE BANDWIDTH BY LEVERAGING CLOUD-BASED UPDATES - In prior releases, all agents retrieved software and definition updates from the console directly, unless they were roaming. In this release, we've added a setting that lets you use ThreatTrack's cloud-based servers for all updates, regardless of where an agent is currently located. This option provides additional flexibility for environments that wish to conserve bandwidth between the agent and the console.

MORE FLEXIBLE WEB TRAFFIC PROTECTION - Although Web Traffic Protection does a great job of preventing people from visiting malicious sites, some organizations with a need to customize the ruleset asked for the ability to exclude (whitelist) certain sites from Protection. This has now been added in the form of an Allowed Web Sites list.

ENHANCED PERFORMANCE ON WINDOWS 10 - Recent changes to the Windows 10 filesystem have affected the performance of our Active Protection feature on that platform. In this release, we have tuned our software to account for Microsoft's changes and significantly increased performance.

Numerous bug fixes, minor enhancements, and performance improvements in both the console and agents.

2. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

Management Console and VIPRE Site Service

Windows Server 2016

Windows Server 2012 (excluding Server 2012 Core)

Windows Small Business Server 2011, 2008 and 2003

Windows Server 2008 SP2 and 2008 R2 (excluding Server 2008 Core)

Windows Server 2003 SP1+ (32- & 64-bit)

Windows 10 and Windows 10 Anniversary Edition (32- & 64-bit)

Windows 8 (32- & 64-bit)

Windows 7 (32- & 64-bit)

Windows Vista SP2 (32- & 64-bit)

Windows XP Professional SP3 (32- & 64-bit) – Fully patched system

Note:Embedded operating systems are not supported

HARDWARE

Dual core processor or higher

1 GB free disk space(up to 20 GB could be required for Premium and Endpoint Security versions for caching of patches)

When upgrading agents, you must create an EXE installer package instead of an MSI installer package. Using the MSI installer package to upgrade an agent will cause the upgrade to fail. See Possible Issues During Update/Upgrade below (this also applies to updating an agent during the upgrade).

If you DO NOT wish to automatically update your existing agents, you can temporarily change your policies by doing the following prior to installation:

Open the Management Console.

Locate the policy for a set of agents you do not want to be updated, and select the properties for that policy.

Navigate to Updates.

Uncheck Check for agent software updates periodicity in hours.

Repeat as necessary for each additional agent group and associated policy.

Wait 24 hours after the policy change before performing the console update.

The agents that use the modified policies will retrieve the policy update and cache it locally, thereby preventing them from attempting to automatically update. The final step above ensures the edited policy propagates to all agents before the console is updated.

The software limitations of these older platforms do not provide the resources necessary for some more robust agent features. VIPRE Endpoint Security requires a minimum OS version of Windows Vista or Windows Server 2008.

Attempting to launch more than one instance of the administration Console (via terminal services) causes agent > Console communication to fail.

This is a product design safeguard that prevents one administrator from overwriting a different administrator's settings without notification. Only one instance of the admin Console should be running at a time.

Due to some of the constraints that Device Guard puts on running processes, Advanced Active Protection cannot provide its detailed and comprehensive monitoring of potentially malicious processes on platforms with Device Guard enabled.

Without proper firewall configuration, agents are unable to contact the Console.

An incorrectly configured firewall can prevent communication between the agent and the console.

See the following support article: Minimum Requirements for Agent Push DeploymentUsing a Remote Admin Console running VIPRE Business 9.3 in conjunction with a VIPRE Business 9.5 Console can overwrite the VIPRE Business 9.5 Console settings (VIPREBIS-5501).

If your primary VIPRE Business Console is running version 9.5, policy changes made on a Remote Console running version 9.3 could potentially overwrite the "Use ThreatTrack for Updates" setting on the 9.5 Console.

Workaround: Discontinue policy updates on the 9.3 Remote Console until it is updated to version 9.5.

or

Workaround: After each policy change made from the 9.3 Remote Console, select the "Use ThreatTrack as Update Server" setting on the 9.5 Console after any 9.3 Remote Console policy changes (below).

To use ThreatTrack as a (non-local) update server:

In the Policy Properties, open Agent > Communication

Check Use ThreatTrack as Update Server for definitions and software updates

Windows 10 agents may BSOD after updating to agent version 6032 (VPBAGENT-2423).

After updating to agent version 6032 for Windows 10 Anniversary support, some users have reported Windows 10 blue screen crashes. We have identified the cause of some of these occurrences and believe they are fixed with this release.

Workaround: As these crashes are difficult to reproduce, we can not guarantee all are resolved. Occurrences should be rare. If they should happen, please contact Support so we can work with you to identify the cause and resolve the issue. As other causes are corrected, we will publish an agent hot fix to address.

Outdated Citrix drivers may cause BSOD on Windows 7 agents

Updating a Windows 7 agent to VIPRE Endpoint Security 9.5 or later can cause a blue screen state on systems with older versions of Citrix drivers on them.